To OTC Journal Members:
 

If You Think It's Been Tough- Consider Life 450 years Ago

Over the past three years we've come through the worst stock market conditions since the 1930's. Fortunes have been decimated. Retirement accounts have been demolished by fraud, greed, and deceit. Thousands of jobs have been lost. Americans no longer feel safe and secure in their homeland.

A look at life in the 1500's should help keep today's problems in perspective. If you're feeling sorry for yourself over stock market losses during the Bear Market, consider life in Medieval England. One of our members emailed in the origins of these expressions. We found it fascinating and wanted to share these facts.
 
 
 

Origins Of Commonly Used Phrases

Some of today's commonly used phrases have their origins in the sixteenth century. Consider these facts about living in the 1500's:

• Most people got married in June because they took their yearly bath in May and still smelled pretty good by June. However, they were starting to smell, so brides carried a bouquet of flowers to hide the body odor. Hence the custom today of carrying a bouquet when getting married.
• Baths consisted of a big tub filled with hot water. The man of the house had the privilege of the nice clean water, then all the other sons and men, then the women and finally the children-last of all the babies. By then the water was so dirty you could actually lose someone in it - hence the saying, "Don't throw the baby out with the bath water."
• Houses had thatched roofs-thick straw-piled high, with no wood underneath. It was the only place for animals to get warm, so all the dogs, cats and other small animals (mice, bugs) lived in the roof. When it rained it became slippery and sometimes the animals would slip and fall off the roof, hence the saying "It's raining cats and dogs."
• There was nothing to stop things from falling into the house. This posed a real problem in the bedroom where bugs and other droppings could really mess up your nice clean bed; hence, a bed with big posts and a sheet hung over the top afforded some protection. That's how canopy beds came into existence.
• The floor was dirt. Only the wealthy had something other than dirt, hence the saying "dirt poor."
• The wealthy had slate floors that would get slippery in the winter when wet, so they spread thresh (straw) on the floor to help keep their footing. As the winter wore on, they kept adding more thresh until when you opened the door it would all start slipping outside. A piece of wood was placed in the entranceway -hence, a "thresh hold."
• In those old days, they cooked in the kitchen with a big kettle that always hung over the fire. Every day they lit the fire and added things to the pot. They ate mostly vegetables and did not get much meat. They would eat the stew for dinner, leaving leftovers in the pot to get cold overnight and then start over the next day. Sometimes the stew had food in it that had been there for quite a while -- hence the rhyme, "Peas porridge hot, peas porridge cold, peas porridge in the pot nine days old."
• Sometimes they could obtain pork, which made them feel quite special. When visitors came over, they would hang up their bacon to show off. It was a sign of wealth that a man "could bring home the bacon." They would cut off a little to share with guests and would all sit around and "chew the fat."
• Those with money had plates made of pewter. Food with high acid content caused some of the lead to leach onto the food, causing lead poisoning and death. This happened most often with tomatoes, so for the next 400 years or so, tomatoes were considered poisonous.
• Bread was divided according to status. Workers got the burnt bottom of the loaf, the family got the middle, and guests got the top, or "upper crust."
• Lead cups were used to drink ale. The combination would sometimes knock them out for a couple of days. Someone walking along the road would take them for dead and prepare them for burial. They were laid out on the kitchen table for a couple of days and the family would gather around and eat and drink and wait and see if they would wake up -- hence the custom of holding a "wake."
• England is old and small and the local folks started running out of places to bury people. So they would dig up coffins and take the bones to a "bone house" and reuse the grave. When reopening these coffins, 1 out of 25 coffins were found to have scratch marks on the inside and they realized they had been burying people alive. So they thought they would tie a string on the wrist of the corpse, lead it through the coffin and up through the ground and tie it to a bell. Someone would have to sit out in the graveyard all night (the "graveyard shift") to listen for the bell; thus, someone could be "saved by the bell" or was considered a dead ringer."

XML Global Technologies (OTC BB: XMLG): Evidence of Business Improving

Despite the lack of major events coming out of the company over the past two months, business is improving and XML Global is getting recognition in the software industry.

The stock began behaving better this past week on the heels of our suggestion the stock would be worth accumulating at current levels. As you can see readily from the chart, investors are looking for an excuse to believe.

Despite widespread skepticism about any sort of rebound in IT spending, the business climate in the IT world is improving. Large corporations are not investing in major new systems. However, they are willing to invest smaller amounts of capital in lower software upgrades which allow their systems to communicate better with other systems, thereby increasing efficiency and reducing costs.

XML Global recognized this trend early on, and has been concentrating sales efforts on its transformation software, an area where demand is surfacing. The company is garnering recognition within the industry for its products, as evidenced by this article which appeared in the December 13th edition of Computer Reseller Magazine: 

Note: XML Global is prominently mentioned as having won a contract with Lockheed Martin over other competitors.
 

Look for a resurgence of positive news flow out of XML Global over the coming months.

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MarketByte LLC has been paid the following fee by XML Global for a year of representation extending from February 2, 2001 to February 2, 2002: $100,000 cash, 60,000 shares of free trading stock, 60,000 shares of restricted stock which are now free trading, and 60,000 options exercisable at $2. The 60,000 shares of free trading stock have been contributed by a third party on behalf of the company. MarketByte's contract to represent the company expired February 2, 2002. The contract was renewed for another year, and XML Global has paid compensation of $20,000 in cash and one million shares of newly issued restricted common stock. Please review our policy on selling shares found in our Mission Statement on our home page.

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